To me, it feels like teenage heartthrob Leif Garrett does not get enough credit as an artist and performer. He deserved so much more!
Throughout his career, the former teen idol experienced extreme highs and lows, but the highs he sought through drug addiction, which he used as a crutch, resulted in him sinking his career…
Before you see him today, at 62, it might be good to hold your breath…
What a babe he was….. Leif Garrett started as a child actor, and in the 1970s, he set the hearts of young women to fluttering when he became a musician.
My mom told me that when she went to the grocery store with her parents, she could see Leif’s face on all of the teen magazine covers at the checkout lanes.
The American singer-actor, born in Hollywood, California, was 5 years old when he first appeared in the movie Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice in 1969, which became the sixth highest-grossing film of the year.
Following that role, the sleepy-eyed, flaxen-haired heartthrob featured in the film Walking Tall, along with its two sequels. In 1983 he joined a number of fellow teen heartthrobs, including Matt Dillon, C. Thomas Howell, Patrick Swayze and Tom Cruise, in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Outsiders.
Some might also recognize him from his performances in TV series, like Family, The Odd Couple (1974), Wonder Woman (1978) and CHiPs (1979).
In 1977, he released his first album Leif Garret, and fans went wild when he performed covers of popular songs like The Wanderer (Dion), Surfin’ USA (The Beach Boys) and Paul Anka’s Put Your Head on My Shoulder.
Garrett was on top of the world. The blond, shaggy-haired singer toured worldwide, and his fans (mostly young girls) went crazy as soon as they saw him.
”I was on a public appearance tour in Sydney, Australia, and they had to fly me in by helicopter and then I jumped into an armored car and drove into the theater by back door. I’ve tried using a lim there before, but the fans almost tipped it over. I guess it’s an adrenalin push for them. They just freak out. It’s very weird,” Garrett told New York Daily News in 1979.
But even though his music was close to topping the charts, he struggled with management that made him feel like a “fraud.” The crossover to adulthood was also a challenge for Garrett.
“I think I was a good performer from the get-go but I wish they had offered me singing lessons before ever making a record and doing the typical punching in a sentence here or there or words or whatever,” Garret said in an interview.
“There’s a particular track (I Was Looking for Someone to Love) that doesn’t even sound like me at all. I would even possibly say I wasn’t even on that track. And to me, that IS fraud. That’s like a Milli Vanilli situation, the difference being, of course, mine was blended many times with myself and somebody else.”
Garrett’s career started to go downhill in 1979 when, drunk and drugged, he crashed a car and sent it tumbling down a hillside in North Hollywood, leaving his then-close friend Ronald Winkler a paraplegic.
But that wasn’t enough for Garret, whose life continued its negative spiral.
In 1980, a time he describes in his book as “the apex of pinup fame,” Garret revelled in sex, drugs and rock and roll with the legendary frontman of Queen, Freddie Mercury, who was at the time recording the hugely successful album The Game, which featured the hits “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and “Another One Bites the Dust.” Garrett said he became friends with the band, who showed him a real rock star life with girls and drugs.
In an interview with Fox for the release of his memoir, Idol Truth, Garrett said:“I don’t think I was a very mature 16-year-old. I became mature very quickly because I was always surrounded by adults who were drinking and doing coke. I was a child, but being treated as an adult… And all of this was coming out of my pocket.”
He continued: “You know, I probably have the greatest fan base that I could ever imagine for myself. They have stuck with me through thick and thin. And as you know, I’ve gotten myself in plenty of bad situations. There was a lot of bad decision-making. But at the same time, I didn’t have the parental guidance that I should have at that time.”
Garret’s tally of charges is extensive. He dropped out of rehab and had numerous run-ins with the police, including whilst trying to buy drugs from undercover cops and trying to hide heroin in his shoe.
Despite making very effort at clawing his way back to the top, Garrett ultimately returned to his old habits. Because of his laughable experiences with the law, Garrett was selected to provide commentary on the comedy show World’s Dumbest, which chronicles the “most amazingly stupid” criminals.
The show also used other celebrities known for personal misadventures, like Todd Bridges, Tonya Harding, Gary Busey and Danny Bonaduce.
Then Garrett landed a starring role on VH1’s Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, a show he did not want to appear on. Garrett accused the show of having him relapse for drama, a claim emphatically denied by VH1.
In an interview the LA Times, Garrett said: “They asked to get some footage of me using, and I said, ‘I haven’t been using. They said, ‘We really have to get footage of you using.’ Anyway, I was easily talked into showing them.”
When a counselor with the production called him out, suggesting he was still using, Garrett walked off the show saying: “This is insanity and quite honestly I don’t appreciate it.”
Fortunately, Leif Garrett is sober today.
”I had a 90-day sentence in county jail. I was in court-ordered rehab before that, and then my mom visited and told me she had stage IV lung cancer. I said, ‘I’m leaving to take care of her—nobody lives with her.’ So dealing with that, I started using again. So it was like, ‘Cuff him, bring him in,’ and I did the 90 days, and that was it,” he says.
According to the former teen idol, he’s still very grateful for all his fans.
”I’ve kept every photo or letter that a young lady sent, telling me about being on their walls and kissing me good night before they went to bed,” Garrett told Closer. “It’s very surreal and a bit embarrassing, but how flattering! I can’t thank [my fans] enough, because I’m still able to do something I enjoy and get paid for it.”
We’re rallying behind Leif’s recovery and hope he can enjoy his life now!
We’d love you to share your thoughts on the former teen idol and his attempts at getting sober.
After Marrying, My Wife Became Too Secretive, So One Day I Decided to Follow Her – Story of the Day
David and his wife were happy together and had a beautiful relationship. Until she started to behave weirdly and secretively. He decided to follow her to discover the shocking truth she was hiding from him.
David and Nathalie are one of those couples you look at and think, “Oh, they’re so perfect for each other! And so in love!”
They knew each other from college but it took a while until they finally started dating. And once it started, they haven’t been apart since then.
David followed his wife to discover what she’s been hiding from him. | Source: Shutterstock
Recently they got married in a dream-like wedding ceremony. Things were great, but a few months after the wedding, David noticed something unusual.
Nathalie was behaving a bit strangely. At first, he thought she could be adjusting to the new “husband and wife” life. But a few weeks later, she was still doing weird things.
David knew his wife, so he thought something could be happening. It all started with Nathalie arriving late from work, not replying to his messages, and not saying when she would be late for dinner.
Nathalie was acting weird so David was wary. | Source: Pexel
The man loved his wife and didn’t want to believe she was cheating. But there were too many red flags. So one day, David decided to confront her.
“Honey, I couldn’t help but notice you’ve been behaving strangely. Is there something going on?”
Nathalie was frightened but she answered, stuttering: “No babe, everything is fine.”
“Are you sure? Aren’t you hiding anything from me?” asked the man.
David confronted his wife and asked her to tell him the truth. | Source: Pexel
“No honey, I’m not.”
“Are you seeing someone, Nathalie?”
“How dare you accuse me of something like that?” She got upset and left.
Nathalie entered the bedroom and got a phone call. David followed her and could hear what she was saying: “Darling, I asked you not to call me. I’ll call you back as soon as I can.”
David knew what he had to do. If he’d confronted her once more, she’ll deny it as she did before. So the next day, he decided to follow her and see with his own eyes. But what happened next, David would never expect…
David followed his wife as she entered a familiar house. | Source: Pexel
As he followed his wife, she saw her entering this tiny street. He parked the car and saw her entering an old building that was familiar to him. “I think I’ve been here before,” he thought but he wasn’t sure.
David knocked on the door and to his surprise, a familiar face opened the door.
“You? But you live in another town…”
It was Nathalie’s mother.
David parked his car in front of the house. | Source: Unsplash
The woman didn’t know what to say. David kept on questioning her, “What are you doing here? Why didn’t my wife tell me you were in town?”
“Well, David,” the woman finally said, “it’s not up to me to tell you that.”
The man got angry and wanted to enter the house: “Where’s Nathalie? I want to talk to her.”
“Wait here, I’ll call her.”
“Oh no, I’ve had enough of waiting…” David entered the house, furious. But what he saw inside shocked him even more. “What’s going on here?!”
David was shocked to see Nathalie there with a kid. | Source: Pexel
David couldn’t believe his eyes. Nathalie was sitting on the floor with a 5-year-old girl watching TV. She knew she couldn’t hide it anymore so she had to tell him the truth. However, she was afraid to lose her husband because of her lie…
“Ok, I’ll tell you everything,” said Nathalie to David.
“I think you owe me an explanation, for sure.”
“I was afraid you wouldn’t marry me if you’d found out about my daughter… Oh Gosh, I was so afraid to lose you. So my mom offered to take her in…”
David couldn’t say a word. The man was shocked.
David went for a walk to think of what he should do next. | Source: Pexel
“I need to take some fresh air,” he said and left the house.
As he walked down the street, his mind was racing. “She had a child and I didn’t know anything about it… How could she do that to me?”
David was lost. He needed some alone time to digest everything that was happening. So he texted Nathalie and asked her to stay with her mom that night. “I need to sleep on this,” he thought.
David spent the night alone then made his decision. | Source: Unsplash
The next day he went back to the house to talk to Nathalie. “Look, you don’t have to hide anything from me. Especially something so serious like having a daughter. To be honest, I was more than shocked, I was hurt.” The man continued, “But I understand your reasons. From now on, I want you to be honest with me, no matter what!”
Nathalie looked at him, teary-eyed. “Of course, honey! No secrets anymore!”
David and Nathalie finally talked about what happened. | Source: Unsplash
“I have a proposal.”
“Yes, tell me!”
“Are you ready to move into a new home? You, your mom, and I could live together.” David looked at the 5-year-old girl and said, “You’re welcome in our new home too, sweetie.”
The girl smiled timidly as David and Nathalie hugged her. “Oh my God, I can’t believe this David! It sounds like a dream come true… I love you so much!”
“I love you too, Nathalie!”
Nathalie and David decided to be honest with each other. | Source: Pexel
From then on, they never kept any secrets from each other and there’s been only love and mutual understanding between them.
What can we learn from this story?
- Accept people as they are. David got angry at first but he understood that Nathalie did what she did because she was afraid to lose him, so he forgave her.
- The foundation of any relationship must be transparency and honesty. Honesty should be the basis of any kind of relationship. Lies can only be hidden for so long and Nathalie was lucky that David is an understanding man. They agreed on being honest with each other and their marriage got even better.
Share this story with your friends. It might inspire people to share their own stories or to help someone else.
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